This week, our podcast, “On Human Rights,” is coming to you from the middle of the Baltic Sea, on the island of Gotland. Here all week at a political festival called Almedalen, politicans, academics, the civil society, and the business community comes together to meet, debate and mingle. It’s sometimes called the largest democracy party.
This year though there’s been a ton of controversy because a militant neo-Nazi group called the Nordic Resistance Movement was given permission to attend the festival. This kicked off a firestorm of debate, with some groups boycotting and others strongly critizing and appealing the decision.
It brings up many difficult questions about freedom of speech and assembly as well as protecting people from hate speech and even violence. To address these questions, we gathered a group to address these questions. We have RWI’s director Morten Kjaerum. Then we have Hanna Gerdes, a lawyer who has worked for the Swedish foundation for human rights and who today works with legal advisory, advocacy and hr trainings. Finally we have John Stauffer, legal director at the ngo civil rights defenders.